With a title game that would potentially pit Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski against Texas Tech head coach Bobby Knight looming over the CBE Classic's semifinals, the Blue Devils (3-0) insist they aren't looking past Air Force (4-0).
No. 11 Duke travels to Kansas City, Mo. with a chance to win its first title of the season and the first in the careers of its four scholarship freshmen.
"It's going to be a great experience for our team to go out there to Kansas City, to play on the road, play some high-caliber teams and play for a championship," junior DeMarcus Nelson said. "We're here to win championships, and this is our first one we can possibly win this year. We're going to go out there and do our best to bring one back."
A win over Air Force Monday night at 7 p.m. would mean a championship bout with either No. 16 Marquette or Knight's Red Raiders. To get that far, however, the Blue Devils will have to defeat a talented and experienced Air Force squad.
With six seniors returning from a team that garnered an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament a season ago, the Falcons represent a unique challenge for Duke.
"The team we play is as veteran a team as we'll play all year," Krzyzewski said. "They'll be one of the top teams-they're very good. To play them on our first road trip, it's a real test for our team."
The Blue Devils will need to execute better in their halfcourt offense if they hope to penetrate the Falcons' suffocating matchup zone, which has held three of their four opponents below 50 points.
Duke is attempting to implement a new pro-style offense this season to spread the floor and take advantage of its athleticism on the perimeter. The Blue Devils have not had a lot of practice time, however, to work on the offense because of their crowded early-season schedule.
"It's going to take time to get into the flow," Nelson said. "It really hurt us when Greg [Paulus] went down, and now we're trying to implement him back into the offense. Eventually it will evolve, and we'll get to where we want to be offensively."
Duke's defense has been its best offense so far this season, as the Blue Devils are forcing 20 turnovers a game and converting them into easy fast-break points.
"Our team is built on defense, and if the offense isn't working, we need to put it into the defense, and things will come from that," freshman center Brian Zoubek said. "That's one of the real good things about this team-the enthusiasm. We love to play, and we play so hard on defense. That's what makes our team."
It will be tougher to create those easy baskets against Air Force, since the Falcons run a version of the Princeton offense under former Denver Nuggets' head coach Jeff Bzdelik. Air Force takes care of the ball, averaging fewer than 13 turnovers a game.
The Falcons have also proved they can win on the road, routing Stanford and Colorado by 34 and 38, respectively, away from Colorado Springs. In both of those games, Air Force jumped out to big leads and never looked back. The Falcons limited Colorado to just 11 first-half points in their 84-46 victory over the Buffaloes.
"It's a good test for us, to show you can go out there against a tough team in Air Force," Dave McClure said. "We're looking forward to it-getting out there and getting our feet wet in tournament play. It's going to be an exciting trip."
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